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Performance in CI

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CI & PERFORMANCE taught by Andrew Wass and Katarina Eriksson
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17th Aug - 23rd Aug 2023

USTER, Switzerland
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In this week-long intensive, that ends with a public performance, Katarina Eriksson & Andrew Wass share their unique perspectives on bringing Contact Improvisation into performance. The workshop is open for people with a sustained Contact Improvisation practice and an active interest in improvisational performance.

 

DEEP PLAY

Looking to expand our range of improvisational choices, we will cross-pollinate readiness to "fall into movement and touch” with performative concerns such as musicality, space awareness and group mind.

Counterbalance, momentum and potential energy are some of the concepts that teases us away from habitual choices and into the realm of curiosity, open attentiveness, and play. We will explore timing; the readiness to pause in the midst of the flow of movements can deepen the awareness and open up to unpredictable turn of events. Being in continuous dialogue with the geography of our environment, we will build scores that help perceive the group as “one big body with many different and specialized parts”, and that cultivates willingness to see and be seen.

Katarina’s teaching supports collaboration, diversity of expression, and “beginner’s mind”. Her main guides in art-making are vulnerability, musicality and deep play.

 

KATARINA ERIKSSON has been involved with improvisational dance since 1989, collaborating with artists, such as Julyen Hamilton, Cathie Caraker, Ray Chung, and Swedish improvisation ensemble Floke. She teaches internationally, and is a regular collaborator at ETS, San Francisco and integrated Dance Company Spinn in Gothenburg. Some of her performance endeavors are: site-specific work with Siljeholm & Christophersen in Beirut, clowning at Noh Space, San Francisco, dancing with Siri og Snelle Produksjoner in Oslo and New York City, choreographing a group of 50+ dancers at Stagewerx, San Francisco, and touring in Sweden with Big Wind’s production for children with special needs.
https://katerimpro.wixsite.com/website-1
https://katerimpro.wixsite.com/website

 

TO ADVANCE OPEN QUESTIONS

Beginning with the solo body we will explore specificity to increase the potential for the duet sourcing Material for the Spine, Re:Wire, and developmental movement. Shifting our perspective to the duet, we will look at CI through a variety of conceptual trios, such as core/floor/contact, roll/pivot/slide/, push/pull/pause, etc. By consciously and rigorously examining the triads, we achieve an un/conscious clarity within the chaos of the dance.
Expanding ever outward, we will investigate how the principles of CI operate within the ensemble, guided by several open questions:
How does observation affect choice-making?
Do we dance with and/or for the observers?
Is it possible to simultaneously discern the compositional limitations as revealed in the moment an those limitations?

 

ANDREW WASS is a choreographer, dancer, and researcher, who has been trying to understand CI on stage, in the studio, and through teaching. His interests lie at the crossroads of philosophy, cognitive science, and improvised dance. Looking to dissolve the boundaries between academic research and performance, he juxtaposes corporeal and cognitive practices to discover their theoretical and bodied commonalities. A member of Lower Left, Wass is pursuing a PhD in Dance at Texas Woman’s University.
wasswasswass.com
lowerleft.org
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LOGISTICS:
It is possible to stay at the studio with your own sleeping gear.

SCHEDULE:
17th Aug
13:00 Uhr arriving, registration
13:30-16 Uhr CI-Jam to arrive physically & energetically
17:00-20:00

18th - 20th Aug
10:00 - 18:00
with a break
21st - 23rd Aug ca 11:00 - 17:00 Uhr
22nd/23rd Aug Performance

COST:
Sliding scale, CHF 500 - 600
REGISTRATION:
contact@dancedot.org

For all traveling from other countries please inquire with us how we can help

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